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January 09, 2007
Some Thoughts on Religion, Culture, Islam, and Christianity.
One of the classes I'm taking this semester is tackling the study of the Bible and Christian texts from a more historic and literary viewpoint than is typically approached. This has brought up some very interesting disucssion so far, and today was only the first day of class! I think there may be only three non-Christians in the class, and those who are Christian range from the very fundamentalist witnessing variety to kids who go to church ocassionally but don't really find their lives swept up in doing Christ's work. I've noticed that a number of people, regardless of their religious affiliations, have been a little down on Islam. It's no big surprise-- we're bombarded daily with the news telling us all about Iraq, Afganistan, Al Queda. The 5:00 news makes it seem like Muslims will do something unpleasent to anyone who steps in their path, and it's hard not to pick up on this kind of attitude, even if you are only aware of its existance and aren't espousing it.
In response to the number of comments I've heard this semester and last being all down on Islam, I wrote the following post to my class message board. I thought I'd share, because I'm getting downright disturbed by all the anti-Islamic spew flying around. Just to keep you internet folk up to date, the Feiler book I cited is "Abraham: A Journey To the Heart of Three Faiths" by Bruce Feiler and the Pagels book is "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas" by Elain Pagels. I think it's clear enough to post to those who haven't read these books, but I apologize if it is confusing after all. Good incentive to check them out, eh? :P
I've noticed a few people have voiced negative opinions of Islam both when it came up last semester and in our discussions so far this semester. There was a point that Feiler made on page 31 that I think is very important to consider before making comments of this sort. "Muhammad believed not that he was founding a new religion but that he was restoring the primordial faith in one God. He also explained that he was bringing this true faith to Arabs, who, unlike their neighbors in the fertile regions of the Middle East, had yet to receive a prophet."
Something that Pagels and Feiler both seem to be hilighting is the effect of a culture on its religion. "Abraham" seeks to understand one of the strongest points Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have in common-- a single character, Abraham, the founder of monotheism. As Feiler points out, however, most of what we know about this character comes not from records written during his lifetime. Instead, "looking for Abraham meant not just looking at the time he was born; it meant looking at any time anyone retold his story....all three religions joined in this interpretive process..." (26-27).
What we tend to ignore, however, in our critique of Islam, is that it stems from the same root as Judaism and Christianity. The difference is not so much in the basic themes as it is in the details that develop from the kind of political and sociological motives Pagels illustrates as having affected the development of the gospels as we know them today. Feiler notes that "each writer tries to make Abraham speak to his generation, or to his particular target audience" (29). The motives behind different interpretations should not be ignored, because it is of vital importance to understanding how and why different understandings of an idea are used to justify not only different rituals or sects, but political and social actions as well. Understanding that a particular passage or book contains information more related to the human than the divine can help us sift what may be irrelevant to us today from the very foundations of a faith.
I am not denying that many terrible things are done today, and have been done in the past, in the name of Islam and the Koran. Many terrible things have been done in the name of a lot of religions and religious variations. Nor am I saying that I haven't been guilty before of making blanket statements about religions and their relationships with social and political climates. I also don't intend to transfer critique of current events in Muslim nations from a religious critique to a cultural or racial one. I only want to point out that blaming Islam in general for what we see as the faults of Muslim nations is potentially misleading or incorrect, just as much as it is to blame Christianity as a whole for political and social events in America today. There are correlations, yes, between the rise in Islamic and Christian funamentalism and our current global political climate, but it is still incorrect to place all blame on religion when it is a complex mixture of theology, culture, politics, and timing that create current events, and always have. I think this is one of the most important points that Feiler and Pagels make, and that understanding the complex interconnection of faith and culture is imperative for understanding one's own beliefs, whatever they may be.
| By Spike | 01:57 AM
Comments
One of the big problems with how Islam is seen by the U.S is that rarely any people other than fundamentalists are shown. Of course we're going to get a negative opinion of Islam if the extremists are shown, the same way that the Northern states (and to some extent the rest of the world) looks down on the South for its reputation of being overrun with fundamentalist christians.
There's also the big problem of the U.S not even attempting to allow Islamic states to undergo a legitimate *internal* democratic transition. The U.S has a tendency of helping Middle-Eastern dictators stay in power and discouraging democracy, for fear that Islamic fundamentalists will win elections. The big problem is that by eliminating the opportunity for political involvement by the citizens, the U.S is helping breed Islamic fundamentalists. When people can't do anything politically to improve their lives when they are ruled by horrible dictators, what course of action do you think they'll take?
Anyway, I'm in complete agreement that Islam gets slandered in this country.
Posted by: Alex at January 9, 2007 12:24 PM
Alex! You might find this really interesting. My History of the Middle East professor was telling us today how in September of 2000, BEFORE the World Trade Center attacks a certain neo-con (Bill Crystal? My notebook got left in the reading room so I can't look it up ATM) wrote a whole 90 page article on why it is in America's best interests to use Iraq as a stepping stone to Iran and then Saudi Arabia and mold the Muslim world into our own image. My professor made a good point that American foreign policy doesn't change a whole lot depending on if it's donkeys or elephants in power. Clinton bombed the hell out of Iraq, too, and the Neo-Cons told him all the time he needed to get troops into Iraq. He didn't listening to the extent dear old Dubbya has, thank goodness, but interesting none the less. I'm thinking that class is going to be really great...
Posted by: Spike at January 9, 2007 09:05 PM